Not a real question imho but a discussion topic... Unless this is a community wiki of shortcuts but then it is still too broad since there are different OSes, different applications etc.
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Dmitry SelitskiyJul 26 '11 at 7:08

@AdamWuerl: I think it's worth combining the shortcut keys into one post; a lot of the less up-voted posts here are marked as low quality by the system and aren't really salvageable on their own...
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Tom WijsmanAug 23 '11 at 11:15

22 Answers
22

It will boost your productivity. E.g. i open all my program windows by hitting CTRL+P (for PDF viewer), CTRL+F (for firefox), ALT+SHIFT+G to search a marked word in any Program with Google Scholar...and so on. Endless possibilities and huge user and scripts base.

You can also re-define any program specific shortcut to your own wishes to avoid shortcut conflicts of different software or make a self defined shortcut having the same function in different program (mostly developers try to bind shortcuts to distinct functions - e.g. SEARCH - but often shortcuts for this basic/similar functions differ)

Some examples:

~LButton & XButton2::AltTab
~LButton & XButton1::ShiftAltTab

for switching between open programs in your windows taskbar, just put it in the autohotkey.ahk script, needs 5 button mouse

Just like with for example a custom keyboard layout, the greatest drawback of your own is offcourse every time you use a computer where your shortcuts are not available, you'll be slower or make mistakes. And those are the moments where people are watching you :)
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KonerakAug 4 '11 at 15:08

1

you could have your shortcuts on your usb stick and online somewhere, so if you have either your stick or internet you can get them. (You can compile the script into .exe so it works on computers without autohotkey installed as well)
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NielsAug 6 '11 at 9:54

3

Can't stress this enough. I mapped Alt+J, Alt+K, Alt+L, ALT+I for the arrow keys (right, down,left,up) and as a coder, it's improved my efficiency tremendously. That's just one shortcut key. Put it on dropbox so you have it everywhere.
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GabeAug 13 '11 at 19:04

I still think this is a great answer to the re-focused question, but you may want to consider some edits as "Your own" no longer flows directly from the question and you may have other things you'd want to change as well.
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Adam Wuerl♦Aug 21 '11 at 20:20

To train yourself to use keyboard shortcuts, unplug your mouse for a few days.

Not only will it force you to use keyboard shortcuts, but you will quickly find out where your applications require you to point and click, and give you an incentive to find alternatives. For example I use the Pentadactyl plugin for Firefox, which gives vim-like keybindings when browsing.

+1 It will slow you down at first, but becomes worth it very quickly. Also, keep a "cheat sheet" of all the keyboard shortcuts (and ways you found of navigating) for each program all in one text file which you can quickly access with your keyboard, and keep adding to it...
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AndyHasItDec 13 '11 at 9:57

Good one. Remember, if you use Google services, e.g., Gmail, entering a question mark will popup a keyboard shortcut list in most Google apps.
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Charlie WilsonNov 25 '12 at 10:45

Thats new to me. Thanks. Maybe it would be neat if you could jump answers on SE with these sc keys.
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SimonAug 7 '11 at 2:53

1

@Simon: well, there's a script for SO, it could probably be adapted to any SE site. Personally I don't think SE needs it, since most question only have a couple of answers.
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André ParamésAug 7 '11 at 12:28

I'll go ahead and say vi keybindings, since no one will let the cat out of the bag.

It's actually something I've wanted to learn for some time now, but have only yesterday gotten knee-deep on all this vi/vim vs. emacs discussion reading, and today have started my path on to learn vim and then actually use it on top of emacs (and ESPECIALLY org-mode).

What I find amazing about vi is the paradigm of modal editing, lost on modern software. For me, a touch-typist, this provides so much more power over Ctrl/Alt keyboard shortcuts, and that much relief from finger strain too.

But since actually using vim has limited context and requires a leap of faith, I'll share some of my findings which bring the vi paradigm into modern software:

The sexy cross-platform code editor Sublime Text 2, which has been converting even hard-core TextMate users, has recently released the sexy-named Vintage Mode, providing vi modes/keybindings.

Google Chrome currently sports two user-created extensions that aim to bring vi-inspired navigation to our dear browser: Vimium, the more popular one, and Vrome. They are inspired by Vimperator which was available on Firefox, which in turn was the vi equivalent of the emacs-minded Conkeror web browser.

I really think browsing the web entirely with the keyboard ought to be, for the chief of computer users, the single most useful application of keyboard shortcuts in all of computer activity.

IMHO besides the "normal" shortcuts for cut/copy/paste, switch windows or applications, etc. the most useful help is a tool which lets you define your own shortcuts and provides an interface to the Operating System.

For MacOS X there is Quicksilver (see http://qsapp.com/) which is, in my opinion, the most useful utility ever created. It is extremely flexible and lets you do nearly everything:

opening files by typing parts of their name — also by selecting which application should be used for opening

browsing directories or your iTunes collection or

launching applications (by typing parts of their name)

accessing the menu commands of the active application (or another one) by typing a part of their name

renaming/moving/copying files

launching user-defined scripts

accessing the contacts in the OS X address book quickly, and displaying/browsing their phone numbers, addresses, mail addresses, etc.

executing shell script commands

and many many other things enabled by special plugins.

all with the keyboard!

It also lets you define short keys for special commands, and makes a "ranking" of the mostly used commands itself which influences the sorting order.

Using Quicksilver is for me the biggest productivity boost — I feel that when working on other computers (Windows PCs or other Macs without QS) how important and useful it is for my workflow.

AFAIK there is nothing comparable for MS Windows. Launchy was also quite powerful, but I often had performance problems and it had by far not the large number of features like Quicksilver.
Here is a list of 10 windows "alternatives" to Quicksilver.

IMO Windows 7 now does most of what you list above: WIN+"fire"+ENTER and firefox opens, even files/scripts if you index them. Plugins are similar to windows gadgets. Is it a script language like autohotkey for Win/Linux or more a closed source program with plugins you can develop yourself like firefox?
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HauserJul 24 '11 at 19:23

@Hauser: hm, I don't know Windows7. Quicksilver is an Open Source application (no scripting language, but can launch AppleScripts like any other file) with many plugins. Will WIN+"fire"+ENTER also remember that you when searching "fire" mostly did not open firefox, but e. g. the "fi e r c e monsters" game and propose this as the first search result next time? The first link, Adam Wuerl posted in his comment shows an interesting presentation of Quicksilver's original creator, N. Jitkoff with many live examples of Quicksilver's power and flexibility.
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MartinJul 24 '11 at 20:59

1

On windows, I have sworn by Launchy for a number of years now. Can't imagine life without it.
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Vic GoldfeldDec 15 '11 at 6:05

If you have Google Desktop, CTRL/CTRL (ie. hit double click the CTRL key) brings up a google search box, and you can paste or type something in. It's amazingly fast, since you can do a google search without picking up the mouse.

Alt tab is a good one. Maybe you could expand on your point for the later part? Are you saying shortcuts are a waste of time? Or that having to memorize a lot of them is negative productivity?
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Jeanne Boyarsky♦Aug 4 '11 at 23:59

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@Jeanne: I read it as "and you should spend time looking for others", he probably shouldn't have negated that sentence...
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Tom WijsmanAug 6 '11 at 13:00

Tom. Yes. There a few ways that could be interpreted so trying to give Thomas the opportunity to clarity.
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Jeanne Boyarsky♦Aug 7 '11 at 13:20

Windows key + Left snaps the current window to the left edge of the screen.

Windows key + Right snaps the current window to the right half of the screen.

I tried this on a dual-monitor setup and that works. However there is a "middle" setting, if you are at the right it will first go to the "restore" size, then the next press will go to he left. Also these help:

Windows key + Shift + Left and Windows key + Shift + Right move the current window to the left or right display.

Windows key + Up maximizes the current window.

Windows key + Down if current window is maximized, restores it; otherwise minimizes current window.

It's not keyboard shortcut, but clicking on tab with a mouse wheel, will close the particular tab.
Keyboard equivalent is CTRL+W
For opening new tab in browsers, use CTRL+T
For reopening last closed tab in browser user CTRL+SHIFT+T